Picked from their sleep by the police came to check their status, Monday, October 31, in the morning, the migrants in the camp of Stalingrad (in the north-east of Paris) were forced to flee precipitately, leaving behind them tents, mattresses and sleeping bags. In their eyes, a few hours later, a backhoe, destroyed everything and threw their belongings in a dumpster. Those who had claimed earlier ownership of the goods have clashed with CRS.

” What happened this morning is a control operation of administrative situations. “ Such was the response, and the immutable, of the prefecture of police of Paris, a few hours after the intervention in the camp installed under the overhead metro Stalingrad. Why, then, this destruction of personal property ? When questioned, the prefecture has responded that they have requisitioned the officers of the Functional (a brigade of the cleanliness of the City of Paris, which intervenes in emergency situations) for that it ” withdraws from the public channel effects “ that it ” belong to nobody “.

” I have more food, more clothes, more tents, mattresses or to cover “, said one young Afghan. Interviewed at the end of their intervention, the responsible of the Functional simply replied be come ” deliver “ they had been requested.

It is especially this scene in the boulevard de la Villette, which has led to the confusion ; several media outlets have announced that an evacuation was in progress. However, ” it was by no means a dismantling or sheltering “, has confirmed Ian Brossat, adjoint to the mayor of Paris in charge of housing and emergency accommodation. It has, however, referred to a ” control operation a bit more complicated, “ and returned the ball to the prefecture of police.

Control and cleaning

The police, she had come to verify the right of residence of migrants in the camp before the evacuation in the coming days, as announced by François Hollande. This type of operation is common, especially before a ” sheltering “. What is less clear, is the destruction of the shelter.

According to the prefecture, the original purpose of the control operation was to make the sort to keep on-site as asylum seekers. During her intervention, the police has, therefore, separated asylum seekers undocumented migrants : the first have been scattered, and the latter taken away to the police station, according to the Committee to support migrants from the Chapel.

Deterrence

For residents who were present at the scene, the operation of this morning had only one goal : ” to deter the migrants to stay and then go to the reception center of the Chapel “, as provided Mireille, a resident of the district, who observed the scene throughout the morning.

This site, installed in the 18e arrondissement, must open the ” in the wake of “ of the evacuation of the camp of Stalingrad, said the Mayor of Paris. Problem : there are approximately two thousand people in the camp, and the site of the door of the Chapel will have a capacity of four hundred beds to the opening, carried to six hundred by the end of the year.

In a letter addressed to the minister of the interior, Bernard Cazeneuve, and minister for housing, Emmanuelle Cosse, the 28 October, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, warns that the reception centre did ” not designed to accommodate the migrants already present at Stalingrad : it is not its function, it has, moreover, not the ability “.

the town hall, it is insisted that the opening of the centre will occur after the evacuation of the camp of Stalingrad ; as a condition sine qua non. If the asylum seekers of Stalingrad does not have ” not a vocation “ to be hosted at the Chapel, where will they be greeted ?

In the meantime, on Monday afternoon, the migrants were assisted at the departure of the CRS in the joy. As soon as the police had turned the heels, they rushed towards the camp for reform. the ” And more, this is not even cleaned up “, has sighed Mireille, the inhabitant of the district.